The Return
by Insanity on High
Summary: On a case, Agent Emily Prentiss is kidnapped and the team cannot find her.  Two years pass and the morale of the team is in shambles, until Reid finds a book.  The book restores the hope of the team.  Can they find Emily Prentiss and bring her back?
1. Part I

**The Return**

by Insanity on High

* * *

**Part I – Prologue**

_FBI Agent Emily Prentiss was running. Adrenaline was pumping through her veins and her senses were heightened. She took in everything around her from the red and orange leaves to the darkening sky. Yet she could not see any disturbances in the soil apart from the footsteps of her boss. She and her boss, Agent Aaron "Hotch" Hotchner, had split from the rest of the team in an attempt to cover more ground. He was running slightly ahead of her. The Unsub was identified by the team as a Patricio Martinez. They knew he was hiding out in that forest and they were determined to find his refuge._

_Prentiss stumbled on a root that was sticking out of the ground and gasped as a spurt of pain shot through her body from her ankle. The noise made Hotch turn to look at her. With this action he could see a black-clad figure grab his colleague's arm. Vulnerable after her stumble, Prentiss had not struggled because she had reacted too late. Her attacker rendered her unconscious and carried her off. Hotch sprang into action, but his initial shock and lack of knowledge of the terrain put him at a disadvantage. He eventually lost sight of the figure._

_That was the last time Hotch saw Agent Prentiss. He was convinced it was his fault. To make it worse, they had caught their intended target and it was not the kidnapper._

_The profilers were stumped on how to find the Unsub that had taken their friend. After a few months, the team had lost all hope. Nothing was the same without Agent Prentiss._

* * *

It was the second anniversary of Prentiss' kidnapping and Hotch was sitting in his office staring blankly at the stack of papers on his desk. In his mind, he was replaying the incident. He missed the raven-haired profiler that had been the most passionate and empathetic person on the team. He would have given almost anything to have her back. The team had tried to find her for a long time, even though they all knew that she was probably buried six feet under.

The entire team was in a somber mood that day, mounting the loss of their caring and strong coworker. The BAU was like a family and Prentiss' absence was akin to having a beloved sibling missing. Since that day the team had not functioned well. They still solved cases and caught criminals, but they could no longer find contentment in saving men and women, girls and boys from becoming victims.

Hotch had noticed these and many more differences in his team. He had seen the flirting cease between Morgan and Garcia. Reid was quieter than before and spouted fewer statistics. Rossi had toned down on the sarcasm and looked even more worn out. JJ had returned to the team, but she rarely smiled at work or when they went to a bar after finishing a case. Hotch still grieved for the loss of his subordinate, but he was not blinded to the changes around him. What pained him the most was that he wanted to tell the others to move on and honor Prentiss' memory, but he could not ask such a thing of them if he was unable to follow his own advice.

Since the team did not have a case at the time, he told everyone to leave early and to be in on time the next day. He, however, stayed until late to finish up paperwork. Then he did what he had done the year before: went to a bar for a drink.

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**Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds, even if I wish I did. The name used is totally made up and just so happened to be the first thing that came to mind.**

**A/N: Thank you so much for reading! It would be nice if I could receive some reviews and hear your thoughts! This is set to be an 8 part story, and I've got the outline done.**

**Teaser:**

"I bought this book yesterday and found the story to be slightly strange. One of the scenes from the book was almost exactly like Prentiss' kidnapping according to Hotch's statement. Certain other parts are eerily similar to some of the cases we've worked."


	2. Part II

**Part II**

_"The greatest moment of one's life is when he/she realizes there will always be hope in the world." - Serenity Slimp*__

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Dr. Spencer Reid decided to spend his time off doing things that he and Emily Prentiss had once done together. It was his way of reflecting on the times they shared. He missed her greatly. She had essentially become a sister-figure in his life: she would tease him occasionally, but was always there for him when he needed her. At least, she had always been there before she was abducted. It was these thoughts of her that brought him to a quaint little bookshop that the two often had passed. Prentiss always expressed interest about going in, but the two never had the time.

Two little bells chimed as he pushed the door open and he closed his eyes to breathe in the mixed aroma of new and old books. He never really noticed the subtle scent until she had pointed it out. Now, he associated the smell with her.

There wasn't a large selection in front of him, but he knew that somewhere in the stacks, a gem was hidden. There would be at least one book that he would feel compelled to buy, there always was. Spencer remembered fondly the time when he mentioned this to Prentiss and she had laughed. After that, she dubbed the skill "his novel intuition". At the time, he hadn't found the pun as amusing as she did, but now he had a wry smile creep onto his lips when he thought of it. He was determined to find a gem in this shop, if not for himself, then for Emily.

He ambled over to the science fiction/fantasy section. He had a set routine for when he was in a bookstore and that section always came first, with another quick run-through at the end to ensure that he had not missed anything. None of the titles or covers caught his eye; he already read a decent number of them before.

He decided to move on to the thriller section, part two of his routine. He never quite enjoyed reading about murderers in his free time, especially since he started working in the Behavioral Analysis Unit. Still, he took his time to peruse the selection. His process of "looking" was as simple as moving his index finger along the spines of the books until his "novel intuition" kicked in. He was surprised to find that it did, and he pulled the new book from the shelf for a closer inspection.

He looked down at the thick hardcover with very few decorations on the cover. Prominently displayed were the title and the author's name: _On the Outside Looking In: Watching Killers and Kidnappers_ by Serenity Slimp. There was an enlarged navy fingerprint in the center of the cover and a white magnifying glass next to the first line of the title. Those were the only adornments on the red background. He turned the book over, noting the golden fore-edge as he did so. He read the back cover:

_A famous female profiler goes to a convention to speak of her life's most dangerous cases. She recounts in detail the hardest times of her career, and mid-lecture, experiences an epiphany about her latest case. What if she is not just speaking to colleagues? What if she is being tested, targeted, and listened to by serial killers intent on improving their crimes?_

Despite the commonalities to his work, Spencer was intrigued and decided to buy the text. His "novel intuition" never let him down, plus, he didn't find another book in the store that piqued his interest. He paid for the book and left the store, eager to see if the purchase was worthwhile.

He read the book five times, despite the needlessness of rereading. He knew the story word-for-word after one sitting due to his eidetic memory. There was something about the story that was bothering him, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. There was something oddly familiar about the cases and he knew that he had not read the book before; after all, it'd been published just a month earlier. He opted to sleep on it, recalling the fact that the unconscious mind can process 11 million bits of information per second.

Sometime in the night his mind found the missing link: he had read similar case files, or had been a part of similar cases. In addition, part of the very last case was almost identical to the story that Hotch told the team about Prentiss' abduction. There was a leak somewhere in the FBI and a civilian must have gotten a hold of the information; it was the only way the novel was so realistic. He decided to bring the topic up when he got to work.

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He convinced everyone to come into the conference room. Even Garcia left her office to hear what he had to say. The team was confused at first because they didn't have a case, but it all made sense as Spencer started to explain.

"I bought this book yesterday and found the story to be slightly strange. One of the scenes from the book was almost exactly like Emily's kidnapping according to Hotch's statement. Certain other parts are eerily similar to some of the cases we've worked."

"How is that possible?" Morgan asked as he sat back in his chair. Hotch reached forwards to grab the book from Reid's hand. He motioned for Spencer to continue speaking before he began to skim the pages.

"I'm not sure. It could be that the author got her hands on some of the files, even though it is supposed to be classified information. Garcia proves that people can hack into the FBI. The question is why they would go through the trouble and then change all the names."

A silence followed the statement as everyone tried to absorb the information. Spencer hoped that someone else could find the answers that he had missed. Being a genius still had limitations, even though Morgan was convinced that Spencer knew everything.

Hotch had been looking through the book with his usual stoic expression until he had a revelation, "Reid, did you ever think that perhaps this is too detailed for official reports? For example, the official report on Prentiss' capture did not include comments on the stench or the fact that I was running in front of her. If this is based off our real cases then this could only have been written by one of us, the UnSub, someone we told the story to, or…"

Everyone noticed the unit chief's struggle to complete his thought. They all knew the missing word: _Emily.

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*Please note that Serenity Slimp is not a real person and has no basis in/connection to any real persons, living or dead.

**This statistic is taken from season 1, episode 5. It is not mine and I am not claiming it to be.

**Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds or anything you recognize.**

**A/N: I'd like to thank Jessalynn (jessalynnGSR) for beta-ing! Also, thank you all for the wonderful reviews (and story alert adds) for the first part! I'm sorry this took so long to put up and promise it won't be as long of a wait for Part III. I'd still love to know your thoughts, so reviewing would be wonderful (although I realize that many of you are busy and I understand.)**

**Teaser:**

"There are no records of a Serenity Slimp anywhere. There's no paper trail. Nothing."


End file.
